New findings around Inca Trail

Retaining walls, platforms, water channels and evidence of burial sites were recently discovered.

Researchers from the Culture Department in Cusco (DDCC) found new archaeological evidence near one of the Inca trails that lead to the ancient ruins of Machu Picchu, on a hill called Taparayoq-Tunasmoqo, at kilometer 88 kilometer of the Cusco railway line.

In the lower part of the hill there is evidence of circular and rectangular enclosures, retaining walls, platforms, water channels and graves that date back to the intermediate and late Inca period.

In the middle and upper parts of the rock, scientist found cave paintings associated with funeral sites.

The paintings have geometric and anthropomorphic shapes, including: camelids, birds, foxes, snakes, toads, as well as figures similar to corn, circles and straight lines, mostly in red.

“By the combination of several elements we can interpret that these iconic representations show the Andean ideologies, their cult for water, fertility and the notion of group collective,” explained archaeologist Francisco Huarcaya, responsible for the network of Inca Trails and discoverer of these particular findings.